Tuesday Tutorial: Nautical Fun

Hey Gals and Dolls, it's Tuesday again, so it means it's time to try another new look.  For this look I've combined nautical and patriotic elements.  It didn't start that way, but after I added a little bit of glitz, the little canvases really looked like flags.  So if you're in the mood to salute your sea legs, follow along.  Here's what I did to achieve this look:

1) First off you want to paint all but your accent nails two coats of white polish

2)  Paint your accent nail two coats of your favorite medium to dark blue.

3)  You're going to paint an anchor on your accent nail.  I didn't photograph each little step, but this is the final look.  What you want to do is first take a large dotting tool and place a white dot on the middle of your nail near the cuticle.  Then taking a toothpick and more white polish add a white strip going down from your circle to the edge of your nail, but leave a little room.  Using the toothpick place a small horizontal line through the vertical line you just drew.  Again, take your toothpick and white polish -draw two curved lines going up on each side of that small horizontal line.  Leave enough space to draw the small triangles at the end of each line.  Have patience.  You will go over each line a few times with your toothpick most likely.  Lastly take your blue polish again and make a smaller dot inside the white dot.  I hope that's easy enough to follow- sorry about that.

4) Taking a nice true red and a striper brush paint some evenly-spaced stripes on each nail that has been painted white- leaving a white stripe at the tip of the nail.

5) Using your blue polish again, paint the tip that had been left white.

6) Now time for a little bling.  I used a clear-based large silver hex glitter.  You can choose whatever you have or don't add bling at all- whatever your flavor is. :)  If you choose not to add the silver hexes and the blue tips, it won't turn out as patriotic if you prefer that.  If you want it- just carefully place a stripe of the hexes along the white row closest to the tip.

Your finished look will be like this:

The polishes I used are Milani White on the Spot, Milani Rapid Cherry, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It, and Jordana Silver Jewel.

I hope you try this- and as always, let me know if you do!

Have a fabulous week!  See you tomorrow for a weekly wrap-up

Over and Out

Monday Mani: Racing Stripes

Ok, so I know these don't really look like racing stripes, but that's what keeps coming to my mind as I look at these nails.  I guess the hot red polish combined with the decreasing lines makes me think of a car speeding away.  You make of it what you will.  This look was so fun to wear around.    It was very striking to my eye with it's strong contrast of colors and it's interesting diagonal shape.

The colors here are China Glaze Red Satin and a black striper by Jordana.  Hope that you enjoyed and please tell me if you try this for yourself!  See you tomorrow for a fun new tutorial!

Over and Out

Sunday Random Swatching 2/24/2013

Happy Sunday to you all, it is gorgeous here, and I have some gorgeous swatches to share with you today.  Per usual, I have chosen one polish from each shade in the rainbow to share with you today  and I'll let you know what I thought of their formula and appearance and then where you can find them at the end of the post.  Hope you find something you like :)  Let's get started.

Peppermint Pedi

 To start out this weekend, I have a color from Sation's new spring line of polishes called Candylandia.  I had really high hopes for this line because all the colors looked so happy and ready to call my collection home ;)  I do have to admit however that when I started swatching them- many of them proved to be jelly polishes and took 3-4 coats to build up to opacity, and for that reason I wasn't totally in love with this collection.  However the colors they came up with are fun, funky and very lovely.  To start this is Peppermint Pedi which was one of the creams.  It is strawberry red and this is two coats.  This is an A polish.

Poppy

 Here we have Poppy from Revlon.  This might be one of the colors they were discontinuing because it's another I picked up on a 75% clearance, but maybe it was just CVS clearing things out, so if you love it you might want to look around.  Personally I did love it.  Some people don't like frost polishes because they can leave streaking lines on your nails, but I really love how they can change up your manicure- giving an alternative finish to your basic creams and jellies.  Also I thought this color was divine and the finish was smooth.  Pleased= A

Club Havana

 Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana is a creamy tangerine.  I don't think I've yet to pick up a polish from this line that wasn't a keeper.  They are super cheap and super creamy and easy to apply.  The bottles have a nice wide brush to cover your nail in almost one fell swoop.  I recommend this line to anyone who wants to try some fun colors for yourself or your girls and doesn't want to invest too much in the venture :)  A

Abbra Cadazzle

 Another Sation for you this week.  This is Abbra Cadazzle.  It is layered over white- as you can see on the pinky where I had a horrible nick on my way to photographing this swatch... Layering over white will make your colors pop more and it was surely the case for this sunflower yellow jelly.  On it's own, I was a bit disenchanted with this polish.  Some yellows can get nice and creamy and opaque- but I think this might be four coats to get it just this smoothed and evened out.  Bit of a bummer.  I do love the color, but because of it's formula, it just makes it less versatile for me for nail art.  So for that reason I think it deserves a B- and if you're going to order some polishes from Sation I'd probably skip this one.  There are other yellow polishes out there that you'll be happier with.

Electric Slide

 Now this I loved.  First of all I didn't have anything like it on my polish racks.  This is Nina Ultra Pro Electric Slide layered over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Grass Slipper.  I think my layering choice gave the neon jelly with holo glitter the slightly dusty green appearance under the glitter coat.  If I had chosen a brighter green I think it would have been truer to what Electric Slide is about, but even still I loved the combo.  This was fun and fresh and I recommend this fun jelly glitter topper.  A.

Celestial

Hello Pure Ice Celestial.  As I've said before- Pure Ice is another winning brand for it's easy availability in a million shades and a price that everyone can afford.  Just look at the divinity that is this color!  A bright blue frost in two smooth coats.  Love it!  A

Tantalize Me

 I really didn't know how this one was going to turn out from looking at the bottle, or after one coat.  However, after two thick, or three thin coats of China Glaze Tantalize Me, I was in love.  This yummy, frosty opalescent light purple may not be the best color for my skin tone, but I sorta don't care.  When I looked down at it, it made me smile and that's really what I gauge it off of.  A

Baker

 The last of the trio of polishes I picked up from Cult Nails.  I've seen this polish featured on some blogs and so I knew I had to include it in my order when I finally placed one.  Honestly this brand applies like butter, which probably accounts for it's price tag- and you have to order it online, so it's not super readily available which are two downsides, but the quality of the formula and the complexity of these shades are some of the best out there.  You'll notice Baker is a nude polish with subtle gold shimmer. I'm showing it here at three coats.  I love it and so will you! A

A Gold Winter's Night

Here is a glitter polish from Nicole by OPI called A Gold Winter's Night.  I have a few glitters from this winter offering and I think their hairy appearance is actually kind of off-putting- so on a whole not really my favorite.  I do think, however, that they had a good thing going with the combination of teal, gold and rose/pink components.  This is two coats over some medium gray polish that it's been too long to recall the name of.  I would grade this polish a B.

Quick Teal

Now for my A+ color of the week...I mean if this color doesn't scream amazeballs to you- not just to wear on it's own as I have shown you here, but think of the nail art possibilities.  This is one coat.  Let me say that again- ONE COAT.  I have a bunch of these high speed fast dry from Milani because they pack so much punch in one swoop of your brush.  I'm not great with my stamping yet, but one coaters are also great for achieving results with you stamping plates.  If you're looking to experience with some stamping I'd recommend these polishes, but just in general I am a huge Milani fan!  And Quick Teal is out of this world gorgeous.

These brands can be found at:
China Glaze: Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta
Cult Nails: cultnails.com
Milani: Kmart, any local drug store
Nicole by OPI: Kmart, Walmart, Target, Ulta, any local drug store
Nina Ultra Pro: Sally Beauty Supply
Pure Ice: Walmart
Revlon: Kmart, Walmart, Target, and local drug store
Sation: transdesign.com
Wet n Wild Megalast: Kmart, Walmart, Target, any local drug store

There you have it.  10 fabulous shades I've reviewed, and now you can make up your own mind about them ;)  Have a great week all!  See you tomorrow for Monday Mani.

Over and Out

Weekly Wrap-Up: 2/21/2013

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little BEE! She is one year old today and it's rockin' my world!  Pics to come on the next wrap-up of birthday festivities :)

As for this week- oh my goodness, what a fun week we've had! As always the pictures will fill you in on what the little animals were up to :) Relive our week with us.  If you're here for nails you can skip this one or follow along with my weekly photo roll of all the trouble we've been gettin into ;)

 Miss Bee's week was filled with discovery and goofiness as usual.

 I love watching her learn through all her senses.

She also enjoyed time with big brothers- what a lucky girl to have so many people to love her and play with her!

Chomping on her most favorite thing in the world! Yogurt puffs are straight from heaven- and she is quite adept at helping herself... Grandpa would say she's saving one there for dessert.

Bee got in some good piano practice time since Mom kept leaving it on and open this week.

If you pound on the keys just right...

See?? Take a lesson mom!

Mr. Bug had so many girls want to be his valentine this year...he didn't know how to choose.

(caption) "There's more than enough of me to go around mom" *wink*

Bug and Bear had a surprise visit from one of their valentines!  And we took the opportunity to have a little photo op with dad.

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These monkeys just couldn't agree on how to pose.

I wonder which dad will choose to put on his wall.

Oh, definitely this one coming up!

Here's my pic

One last kiss for my dad before he gets on the road.

And that was our week in pictures, family and friends :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour.  See you in another week!

Over and Out

Tuesday Tutorial: Tuxedo Nails

Hey guys, this look was so fun to do- and I hope you take courage and try it out for yourself!  It just takes a little patience and very few supplies :)  

Here's the finished look:

First off you need a dotting tool and a medium striper brush.

 Then you will paint each of your nails with two coats of your favorite white polish for nail art.

I chose Milani White on the Spot.

 

 Next, taking your striper brush and your black polish paint two lines up to a point at the 

middle of your nail.  The color I used was Milani Black Swift.

Using the small end of your dotting tool, fill in the area from the black lines 

to the outside of your nail

Then take the larger side of your dotting tool and drop two dots onto your nail for the buttons.

Finally you will take your striper and draw a wide x right at your cuticle and then 

use the dotting tool to fill in the bow so it looks like this:

 Add a generous amount of top coat carefully and you're all done!

There you have it.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you try this look for yourself.  If you do let me know how it goes!

Over and out